I had a dental appointment :tooth: this afternoon and shortly after leaving work I spotted a panda car parked facing the other way.

I joined the motorway and flew for about 2/3rds of a mile and then got held up and was travelling at about 70mph.

Noticed in my rear view a white vehicle with headlights on and it was gaining very rapidly :nono:

Yes it was the same rozzers vehicle I had seen about 3 minutes earlier.

Pulled in on the hard shoulder :confused1:

Officer came to my passenger side and I expected him to have a word about my speeding - perhaps, although I was not sure what he wanted.

Turns out all the fuss, blues and twos was because my front number plate is a little small :ohmy:

Admittedly it is illegal I will hold my hands up but would a warning and advice for me to change it of sufficed?

I have popped the 'legal' one on there that the previous owner did leave in the boot, obviously I do not want fine upon fines.

Just a warning to others - they are clamping down but I have seen a lot lot worse, spacings, fonts and all that

See the pic to compare the size, both are white just the flash as shown up differently

 

 

This is the smaller one on an earlier pic- is it really that bad :angry:

 

The more days pass the more I feel how petty this 'offence' was.

I make every effort to make sure my z is in tip top shape when it goes out and mainly I am talking about the lights - they are without fault.

If I did spot a fault I would endeviour to mend immediately :detective:

Then I spot this tonight on the way home :mad2:

Some brakes lights stuck on and no light at all on one side - now which offence is the worse I say bitterly? :confused1:

This fiesta/owner will drive around obliviously for weeks if not months and no doubt never get stopped and why should that be - because it is such a run of the mill bland car :taz:

 

Spooky I followed one the other night just the same!-Brake lights on and one out (it's a 206 BTW!):chinese:

Oh no!

 

Hope I don't get pulled!... I just bought this......

 

 

ive never had any problems with mine...think its more or less jap size lettering tho

There is a piece of legislation somewhere that says you may display a plate the same size as that which would have been displayed in the country of origin if your car is an import.

 

I'm afraid I cant remember where I found it but I used to carry a printout of it in case I ever needed to justify my plate size. It's one thing trying to argue with them verbally but if you were to produce documents showing you can have what you have (because frankly they have no idea what a Japanese car would roll around wearing) they may well back off and recommend you get a UK sized plate.

 

I did get stopped - and fined - for having blue LED fixings on my rear number plate !! They said I could be mistaken for a police vehicle !

There is a piece of legislation somewhere that says you may display a plate the same size as that which would have been displayed in the country of origin if your car is an import.

 

That's not quite right, only if you are unable to fit a standard plate on the car - i.e. there is a recessed section for the plate, or similar. Legislation is here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2687/contents/made

“Size and spacing of characters: special cases

 

14A.—(1) This regulation applies in relation to any vehicle imported into the United Kingdom which—

 

(a)does not have European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval; and

 

(b)is so constructed that the area available for the fixing of the registration plate precludes the display on the plate of a registration mark in conformity with the requirements of regulation 14.

 

(2) In relation to a vehicle to which this regulation applies—

 

(a)each character in the registration mark must be 64 millimetres high;

 

(b)the width of each character of the mark, other than the letter “I” and the figure “1”, must be 44 millimetres;

 

©the width of every part of the stroke forming a character in a mark must be 10 millimetres;

 

(d)the spacing between any two characters within a group must be 10 millimetres;

 

(e)the vertical spacing between groups of characters must be 5 millimetres;

 

(f)the width of a margin between the mark and the top and lateral sides of the registration plate must be not less than 5 millimetres;

 

(g)the space between the bottom of the mark and the bottom of the registration plate must be not less than 13 millimetres; but, within that space, the space between the bottom of the mark and the top of the name and postcode of the person by whom the plate was supplied must be not less than 5 millimetres.”(1)

“Size and spacing of characters: special cases

 

14A.—(1) This regulation applies in relation to any vehicle imported into the United Kingdom which—

 

(a)does not have European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval; and

 

(b)is so constructed that the area available for the fixing of the registration plate precludes the display on the plate of a registration mark in conformity with the requirements of regulation 14.

 

Rich666, you are exactly right. The whole issue comes down to the interpretation by the MOT inspector or plod or magistrate of this bit

the area available for the fixing of the registration plate precludes the display on the plate of a registration mark

 

What does "preclude" mean?

In the case of our rear plates, the space in the bumper physically prevents the use of UK plates or UK characters on import plates (spacing is not possible to be legal for UK font on 13" x 7" plate). So clearly import font on import plate is legal.

 

In the case of our front plates, is there anything which physically prevents use of a UK size plate? Not usually. Does the design of the area available for fixing prevent the use of a UK size plate? Well, stretching a point, possibly. 2 possible reasons. If they agree this "precludes", you're legal. If they say this does not preclude, you're not.

1) The size of the plinth is only 330mm wide on a JDM '99 spec bumper so a wider plate is clearly not intended to go on there.

2) The air gap in the bumper would be obstructed by use of a bigger plate so we have to use the smaller one. (Luckily he didn't know about the UK plinth which completely obstructs the air gap which I claimed needed not to be).

 

I used "2" OK three years ago with my MOT person and got away with it on a normal bumper

with a legal plate from http://www.craigsplates.com (not stopped by the boys in blue touch wood so haven't had to try it on with them).

 

And with the new silver one, Craigsplates are also happy to make a legal import font size front to match the plinth on the 99-spec bumper. I have a shorter reg no with only two numbers after the year letter and one of those is 1 so it will legally fit (three numbers wouldn't).

 

Even with a legally made plate (makers, BSI, postcode etc) it will come down to whether or not Mr Official agress with the strict or not-so-strict meaning of "preclude".

M'lud.

Edited June 2, 201114 yr by Gio

Hi Rich

 

My printout pre-dated that legislation (I bought my first Z in 1999) - possibly the legislation that this piece is amending maybe ?

 

I've had a trawl but cant find it but equally I may have been clinging to a tenuous thread of hope that the police wouldn't question it :-)

 

Mark

I carry this lot in the glovebox for exactly that reason!

DVLA Number plates 3.PDF

This definition uses the slightly looser wording of "cannot accomodate" rather then "preclude" but there it is in black and white from DVLA, officer.

"...there it is in black and white from DVLA, officer"

 

Was always going to be my exact words !!!

 

:cool3:

the bit ur talkin about is on the dvla website markyb

the bit ur talkin about is on the dvla website markyb

 

shud maybe have read all the posts first eh:whistling:

:thumbup1:

i got stopped once for dropping a girl home at 2am many yrs ago. i sped off trying to lose them, parked in a cul de sac for an hr, and when i returned and drove off the cops were all over me. took me hrs to find the car the following day, mind u i was rat arsed the nite before